I Was Very Unhappy with How Oprah Sold Out Indian Women to the Surrogacy Market

Surrogacy is one area that I as a feminist have radically altered my stand on. Till a few years ago, I saw no harm in individuals or families having children via surrogacy, because I did not know then about the dark underpinnings of the industry that puts out wombs on rent. In fact I was highly supportive of surrogacy as a means to parenthood for single women/men and gay couples. However as I learned more about this industry and what it does to poor women, especially in India, I realized that the only way to stop this systemic abuse and exploitation of poor women, was to ban surrogacy in India and the world. If a system is geared towards systemic abuse and exploitation, then it makes no sense to permit it in any form, however benign handpicked cases may be. After all, desiring a biological child, is really nothing more than narcissistic self indulgence or perhaps existential insecurity. If people really wanted to raise a child, there are millions of children in orphanages and foster homes waiting for a loving parent and home. So in 2021 the ICASM (International Coalition for Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood) published an anthology “Towards the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood” in which my contribution is an essay titled “How Oprah Promoted India’s Global Surrogacy Market.” I am posting below screenshots of two pages of my essay. The book is being translated into French, Spanish and other languages. It is available on Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Surrogate-Motherhood-Marie-Jos%C3%A8phe-Devillers/dp/1925950425 The website for ICASM is http://abolition-ms.org/en/home/